I do write by hand. I just think - I don't know, it's a physical thing for me. It's a bodily thing. It literally has to earn its way through my hand.

I'm so interested in the fact that we really don't know anybody. We think we know the people close to us, but we don't, we really don't.

She didn't like to be alone. Even more, she didn't like being with people. (148)

My first job was when I was about 12, cleaning houses in the afternoons for different elderly women in town. I hated it.

I don't think there was a particular book that made me want to write. They all did. I always wanted to write.

Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.

You have family", Bob said. "You have a wife who hates you. Kids who are furious with you. A brother and sister who make you insane. And a nephew who used to be kind of a drip but apparently is not so much of a drip now. That's called family".